israel's poised for a full scale invasion of gaza while fresh air strikes kill more civilians amid international efforts to mediate peace. in the latest escalation jerusalem is targeted by militant rockets for the first time with increased activity by both sides all the details just ahead. britain considers the lifting of an e.u. arms embargo to send weapons to syrian rebels may join france and turkey and recognizing the new opposition group aiming to oust the sun. and police in england and wales raise the alarm as layoffs are growing workload and no support from the government bring morale in the force to president of low.

well off from our new center here in moscow this is r t with international news and comment we with you twenty four hours a day fresh air strikes have killed more civilians in gaza despite israel's pledge to hold fire during a brief visit by the egyptian prime minister to the strip a mass and other militant groups retaliating have gone off in jerusalem as rockets were launched at the city from gaza tom barton's in tel aviv with the latest. saying at the moment neither of those rockets towards jerusalem fell in built up areas and no damage reported either but again it's a very shocking development for many israelis to hear the sirens go off over jerusalem and hear those explosions over the city of course earlier in the day as well rocket fired very close to tell of eve the sirens going off there and an

explosion all of this really very shocking for the israeli population that didn't expect the rockets to reach that far from garza was targeted yesterday as well and all of this coming the background of renewed airstrikes today started off with a very intense bombardment by israeli forces in gaza we also had today of the major event of the visit by by egypt's prime minister to the garza strip and then also these rocket attacks all of this contributing perhaps to the speculations and to the worries of a possible ground offensive by israeli forces towards the gaza strip pictures on israeli television of columns of tanks and armored vehicles massing near the border

with gaza there's also reports thirty thousand reservists are ready to be deployed we've also got reports of. infantry brigade closely to finishing their preparations for any assault that may be needed sounding sounding words there and various evidence like that on the ground also statements from various israeli government and defense folks people. talking about a lot of talk about. phase two of the operation and whether that means ground offensive after this aerial bombardment it's not exactly sure but it should be noted that in two thousand and eight to nine operation cast lead which involved a major ground offensive took place at night that was thought to have given the israeli attackers an advantage and there's also been

a statement to the effect that this is far from over say the israelis and that there's a lot more of these kind of operations to come so there's a lot of worries about that when it egypt's prime minister toward guards early in the day went to a hospital while he was there two civilians were killed in an israeli airstrike were brought into the hospital one of them a child and he said later that he held that child in the blood remained on his shirt so shocked was that he was he that he said he couldn't keep silent or that he wanted israeli israel to stop its aggression israel for its part maintaining that it has the right and it will do everything in its power to defend people in the south of israel all of these escalations with the rockets with the intensified bombardment all of that not pointing the way of a deescalation and possibly pointing towards

a ground war in gaza. god as for the health minister told r.t. that the israeli army operation is breaking international law. benefit of the of those studies have proved that israel is using internationally prohibited weapons in quality and quantity they have managed to destroy many buildings and houses using percussion bombs which led to the collapse of many of the surrounding buildings moreover the bodies of those killed were completely burned and this clearly shows they have used prohibited weapons others died in hospitals and we weren't able to diagnose the causes of their deaths we're talking here about one hundred sixty injured in these attacks the majority of whom were children women and the elderly the majority of those who died were children who suffered from seventy five percent to ninety percent burns. israel maintains its conducting a successful operation to spot the rising number of civilian casualties in gaza and in my colleague research a spec to a ton of eve official who denied causing collateral damage. i want to see that we

have only one goal israel has to defend its citizens i'm sure that there is no state no state no russia and no state in europe in the united states of america can agree with this kind of situation you know our children our elders are fired by rockets on our schools on our civilians and on the terrorists with one very simple goal to stop this firing of rockets on our civilians and we will target terrorists until they stop would you care to explain why the palestinian interior ministry has also been targeted in fact that building is basically left in a state of rubble and ruin it's hardly a militant stronghold in fact the the interior ministry is where people get passports visas it's where journalists get their permission to go into the strip why go after why level the interior ministry the explanation is very simple

unfortunately a mask terrorists while they target our civilians they hide behind their civilians they hide behind schools now the i.d.f. our army wants only to defend our citizens targets only terrorist scars that is an extremely confined area a very small area probably certainly over populated why are so many children being killed by israeli airstrikes if you're going after militants there are no children been heard by idea if only terrorists heard only terrorists are targeted while the visit of. the prime minister of egypt israel didn't try and didn't attack any target in gaz but a master is the target israeli civilians while the visit of the prime minister of egypt and i suggest you check the information because there it cannot be. people

hurt while the visit of the prime minister of egypt because we didn't know you are also doing also if. you are you're absolutely right according to the i.d.f. no airstrikes were carried out on the gaza strip during the during the visit of the egyptian prime minister although somehow two palestinians did manage to die the israeli early in the israeli government will do everything needed targeting terrorists only to earth to stop the firing of rockets israel is serious about these really schools and israeli children and if we will need some ground. with those who will consider so. gaza based documentary filmmaker an activist harry fear i spoke to a little earlier he says that gazans are ready to repel law if need be but this is a massacre according to god's image most of the gazan population to be aged eighteen seventy five percent youth unemployment sixty percent unemployment massive

monument most people in gaza refugee status. sixty. eight agencies are going through towns just they do not started that so that is what the situation is like normally today in these days and gaza is big with drones with f. sixteen s with helicopters with names. and so you can just imagine it's not getting any better out of sr resistance groups are being applauded by a majority of gazans for the strong resistance in our battling israeli forces so it's not looking. to me and narrative point of view that i actually got some to hope that that was how. what seemed to be very likely an imminent ground by its very defense forces. stay with r.t. for the latest on gaza plus we've also got live coverage on our web site twitter stream.

britain makes a push to support the rebels in syria love the most in your position the us and joins france in calls to lift an e.u. weapons and bono to allow for direct elmes deliveries to fight is on the ground we bring you the details on that in just a couple of minutes. things are just getting too expensive in london many families just can't afford to live in the city anymore so because of upcoming welfare cuts the government is buying or renting property to relocate people outside of the city the maximum housing

allowance for welfare will go down to four hundred pounds a month which is peanuts compared to the one thousand two hundred fifty pounds need to pay for the average three room apartment expelling the poor from london seems a bit fishy to me so instead of say regulating prices or cock for big using the money from the welfare cuts to create jobs so people can earn a living for themselves rather than rely on handouts london has decided to make itself some official get to go as well as to call a place where everyone from a certain economic classes forcibly shove to although this may sound like some sort of help from the government it seems to me like a means to get rid of the poor rather than trying to make the poor less poor but that's just my opinion. culture is that so much of an idea that you should be sitting on the market again because you know the military assault would you be israeli soldiers would treat

this time four years ago an invasion pulled over a thousand palestinians. mission and free credit take three months for charges. to make amends free. free. free. download free broadcast quality video for your media project a free media oh god r.t. dot com you. may miss it's in. my daddy. does the famous phrase. ransom business.

model. he continues here in r.t. live in moscow western nations have begun a crusade of support for the syrian rebels britain says it will discuss the lifting of an e.u.

arms embargo to start sending weapons to the opposition fronts the first country to recognize the newly formed regime alliance the national coalition is also pushing for supplies of defensive arms the syrian opposition went to london today to lobby for more support to overthrow the assad government britain wants to see a clear plan of political transition from the alliance and could be next in line to officially recognize the new group earlier turkey gave the rebels a major boost by recognizing them as the legitimate representative of the country's people let's go live now to london in culture it is a middle east commentator and a blog called do you think the the e.u. will authorize direct weapon supplies to the syrian opposition just because that's what britain and france want. there's no clear indication that they will however the evidence is from before when this gathering in the house started to restructure the syrian opposition on the cleared western backing of it was interpreted by as some as a sign to kind of give them their credibility in order to lift their weapons and go

and start to give their pows more weapons now if you hear william hague's statements today after his meeting with the leaders of their syrian opposition he wasn't quite clear on that but i think what the entire this posture highlights is the unpredictability of the western position towards syria which kind of the only consistency about that has been its unpredictability and inconsistency which could shift at any moment and i think we need to be very clear about that because the tipping point could happen at any point and surprisingly now there seems to be momentum but there's still a lot of reluctance but also there's sort of different powers backing the emerging syrian opposition aren't the kind of playing in the same way a wavelength so all in all there is kind of indication that this might happen but it hasn't gathered enough momentum in what about the unpredictable nature of the syrian opposition itself the rocket bomb he says the u.s.

is only interested in encouraging the most moderate elements of the opposition that are committed to human rights that that's a quote from him but how realistic is this especially after we consider what happened in libya. yeah absolutely but also i mean in syria of course the process has been much slower and the wave of defection that we saw in libya didn't exactly happen in syria and what's happening now in. syria is the people there are kind of for presenting the syrian uprising are not the people who are on the ground so we started hearing for example support from different rebel groups aren't marable groups for the new opposition leadership but who knows the extent of that or whether they would be able to exercise political control so what you really have to look at that there is the strong divide between the leadership that is outside the country and doesn't have control on the ground and forces on the ground pretty much doing whatever they want and let alone all the political divisions within after all

we've ended with is to separate opposition bodies because the syrian national council still exists alongside the national coalition then your national coalition so it's a recipe for a more division and kind of lack of coherence for moving the country forward or for the country's future middle east commentator culture and thank you very much indeed for that. us president barack obama is heading east on saturday to build ties with countries in the asia pacific region among them is my ma welcome to the pond washington a pariah state well for more on the reasons behind this visit here is daniel wagner he's head of cross border risk consultancy firm country risk solutions joining me live from the usa how does it come about that for the first time an american head of state is traveling to a former international outcast. well it's a sign of the times isn't it mr obama certainly has not made

a secret of the pivot of america and from a military source perspective to asia and look it's an opportunity i think the obama administration would say here is a state that has clearly made its own pivot toward the west and toward america and although mr obama might be criticized in some quarters by perhaps rewarding them too soon by actually going and paying them a visit i think mr obama wants to make sure that they get to the finish line the finish line in this case being come over to our corner you've been in china's corner for a long enough so how will china particularly bearing in mind it's got a new leadership how will they respond to that. well first of all i'm not so sure that the quote new leadership in china is all that news most of it is composed of very conservative elements who are not likely to change very much from from what was china of the past i think china's got a dilemma here because on one hand they could be antagonistic toward the pivot and

make an enemy but i don't think that's likely to happen i'm i'm hopeful that both america and china will see this as an opportunity perhaps to work together if you will with potentially collaborative interests let's not forget china has a very long history with my own mark the since one thousand nine hundred nine they've been their primary supplier of military they've been their pipe primary supplier of imports so the relationship there is very very strong and america sort of coming to the party at this stage of the game doesn't necessarily represent much of a threat to china. if it's being pulled apart interests. they're really depends on how they choose to handle this going forward there's a lot that man maher still needs to do in order to quote make it to the finish line from the west perspective they've gotten a good start a credible start but there are so many things that need to be done from regulatory

reform to prisoner release to making a more friendly foreign investment climate. i think they're going to have their eye on the prize their eye on the prize as a long term pivot toward the west that demonstrates diplomatically militarily economically that it wants to proceed in that direction and that it's bound to stay there mr obama is only going to be there for six hours it's not like it's the centerpiece of his trip so i think we need to keep things in perspective you seem transition to a new era a successful one considering all the turbulence and volatility around the rest of the world isn't some ways could it be seen as a success story. well in some respects it already is a success story let's not forget where they were just a year or two ago still that pariah state still closed still imprisoning on song suchi they've come a long way since then and they know they have a long way to go my hope is that they will take some very bold strides and demonstrate to the international investment community for example that man mars

a safe place to invest so far the investment law that they've come up with hasn't gone far enough but i think in terms of starts it's as good a start as any one could hope for let's not forget on song suchi herself has warned the west about some of the perils about having a relationship with my own bar and investing there so time will tell daniel wagner great to talk to you thank you very much indeed for your thoughts joining us live in the usa. the first of a public vote in england and wales for local police and crime commission is comes with a role among the nation's no one forces at rock bottom a recent poll of offices suggested that was every single one of them felt abandoned by the government nor smith looks at why the thin blue. as the blues. another day another demo and the police only with old hands to keep control but while the boys and girls in blue do their jobs sometimes and impossible conditions the government

is reducing their budget by a massive twenty percent the net result more all in the force hits an all time low with just fifteen out of fourteen thousand officers saying they feel the government gives them a great deal of support rachel baines is surprised but not in a good way. to say their fifteen offices are certainly in the force i work in lancashire and i don't have any offices to fill up being supported by the government at rock bottom baines has lost five hundred fifty officers from her force meaning more work for those left behind and a genuine fear that when people call nine nine nine there won't be anyone left to deal with the emergency and she's not alone so i'm in pain is chair of the warrick ship police federation and he says morale hasn't been this low in his twenty six year career with the have a plethora of issues over the last two two and a half years where the start or conditions of service with pension reforms or

were thought forms in the police service person twenty percent cuts in a forgiving example here in work prior to this government coming to power we had a thousand and fifty offices we're now down into the seven hundreds we have one of the biggest nights way networks in the country and we have no traffic department. so it's coming from all sides times are so hard in war that the force is even selling off its stations including its h.q. there's no first sale boards are pair but the iconic scotland yard headquarters of the metropolitan police is also on the markets. it's a real turnaround just a year ago the mets with trumpeting a three billion pound refurbishment spain was revolving saing now it's downsizing to a new size of the thames nearby and replacing smaller stations with counters in supermarkets

and communities that. the force feels it's being disproportionately targeted but home secretary to reason may is on repentant let's stop pretending the police are being picked on they do you feel picked on and critically powerless to protect themselves as a legally the police aren't allowed to strike but that could change in february we are saying everyone can fall off the rank chief inspector in england and wales on that very question do they want food industry rights and and the reason that is important is because members need protecting from what they perceive is an unfair treatment by. a police force on strike it's the last thing the government needs to take a listen it's not the winter of discontent in the face no respect oh it's

a done deal. and more analysis of the escalating violence in gaza is coming your way in cross talk that's with peter lavelle stay with us this is r.t. in moscow. the sun rises over what seems like and most forest here in the new directions cry for hundred kilometers north of life are stopped as much of the world it's disappearing at a catastrophic rate. mortgages both in. legal and those finding ways to outsmart the system filing down the forests of the region for them profit goes well beyond the future of our planet and the result could be an ecological crisis the world wildlife fund for nature makes

regular trips to help local rangers do what little they can to stop the logging but it's not easy lager set up trucks making them hard to reach in an already rough terrain and have mastered ways to jump through legal loopholes this is a nature reserve we're only sanitary logging of disease trees there's a lot out according to law and not a single berry can be picked but loggers like this use their sanitary logging permit to cut down absolutely healthy trees and sell the profitable timber over the border in china we are on the hunt for illegal loggers and it's not going to be easy to forests. and our chances are slim now for now we can stay in our dreams but as soon as we find solid tracks we'll have to drop our wheels and get out silently in order not to scare the waters off alexander someone has been a ranger for over twenty five years he can spend weeks at a time tracking a single group of loggers easier to work when snow falls in autumn it's impossible

to find human tracks and even transport tracks are hard to see after hours of driving we get sent in the right direction by word of mouth you can see that the ground is soft here which means that twelve tractor trails are very fresh which in fact means that we need to be quiet in order to not scare them off as we get closer . this team says they're illegal but have no documents now xander can now call the police to take over if his work here is done he is overwhelmingly outnumbered there are too few rangers working in the region and the w w f a says the government isn't doing enough to stop it the government now. just liaison source since two thousand so in regards and your forest court and according to. every forest service the guys in waltham in the in the forest to the still this forest courts deal doesn't work just you should do it there's no one

tries to stop them in just five years the forest will be gone they'll sell it all to china what will the people who live afterwards do like it's a question more and more people are aware of today climate change in the safety of our environment as a whole are being discussed around the world and perhaps it's those small steps that might be a start to people living in harmony with nature. and . to. follow in welcome to crossfire computable again gaza is under military assault what do the israelis hope to achieve this time around four years ago an invasion killed over a thousand palestinians and destroyed much of the strips infrastructure in the end

hamas remained intact in gaza still under siege what can the israelis do now that they haven't done before. and. to cross out the events unfolding in gaza i'm joined by harry fear in gaza he is a documentary filmmaker and activist in washington we have daniel pollack he is co-director of government relations for the zionist organization of america and in new york we cross to norman finkelstein he is a political analyst and author all right gentlemen cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in as you wish i hear if i go to you first you're in gaza tell us what's happened there what you've seen over the last twenty four hours. of the last twenty four hours we've seen an escalation in violence from israeli air force and israeli naval vessels and feted on trying to get every single part of the gaza strip even.